Sorry it’s been a fews days since I’ve posted. I’ve had a couple of beers but away from the computer so I took notes to post later.

This one isn’t from Lidney, but from another friend Russ who came into town for the Medieval Congress a couple of weeks back. I opened it up to drink while I was washing dishes and making dinner. As such, I don’t have detailed notes.

Overall thoughts? Crazy drinkable, highly grapefruit-rindy, and with a ton of citrus character. At 7.5% I wouldn’t expect any booze and there is none. Drinks easy and finishes clean. A superior IPA.

I gave a few sips to a non-beer-drinking friend and he enjoyed it despite “not liking beer.” Max, I’ll get you into IPAs yet.

No rating since I wasn’t really paying close attention to this one. Somewhere in the B range most likely.

Another beer sent to me by Lidney (I think — I’ve gotten a lot of new beers lately from a couple of people). This one’s a canned DIPA from Texas.

Pours dingy orange, about half opaque. Lots of bready malt character on the nose, not a lot of prominent hops. Some bitterness for sure. Slightly metallic.

Flavor: Wow, very very smooth. More like a 9.2% pale ale than IPA. Nice biscuity malt, a hint of hop bite but very little hop character. Perhaps an old can? No date code that I can see. With the excess of caramel malt this is like a super-smooth barleywine or super-ESB than a DIPA.

The bitterness definitely starts to creep up on me as I get through the can. Metallic character starts to dominate the aftertaste. (Not from the can, of course, but from the extended aftereffects of the hops.) It’s not exactly a DIPA, but it’s not exactly bad, either.

I’m not sure how to rate this one. As a DIPA it’s substandard. It reminds me of either an old can that hasn’t been in great condition, or a early-draft homebrew recipe. I’d love to try it again and see if this can is just off, or if this is what it’s supposed to be.

Even though I don’t love this one, thanks a lot for the can, Lidney. I always like to try interesting new stuff.

In an attempt to create content for the blog, I’m going to start doing brief rundowns of the beers I drink when I open new, cool stuff.

Got off from work around 11:15, started re-heating leftover pasta sauce for dinner. Cracked the brand new Stone 17th Anniversary Gotterdammerung IPA, all German malts and hops. Slightly darker than straw yellow color, more of a light orange/brown with a thin head. Aroma and flavor are all earthy spice, as expected from an all-German hopped beer. I wish it had a bit more body to back up the hops and to accentuate it’s “German-ness,” but ultimately Stone made the beer they want to make.

Stone 17th Anniversary Gotterdamerung IPA

Nine percent ABV. Lots of hops. Late night. I think that’s it for me (especially after a large and very late dinner). Cheers.

There must have been an issue with the hop harvests last year, at least in the midwest. Nearly all of the fresh-hop beers that I saw reviews of last year seemed a little lackluster and bland. While I ended up giving the 2010 Founders Harvest Ale a B+ overall, I definitely didn’t think it was all it could be.

I don’t want to bother shooting another review for this one, but I wanted to give the 2011 a shake.

Even just starting the pour I can smell the nice fresh resiny hops. Beautiful floral notes, some nice pine background. Almost like a Christmas tree. I’m more attuned to hops than I was last year, but I suspect it’s definitely a more pungent hop aroma.

Ditto for the flavor. A bit more earthy, but with those definite pine and floral resins. Slight golden malt backbone provides just a tiny bit of sweetness, but this beer is definitely a showcase for hops. At 6.5% it’s not quite as big as a traditional IPA, nor is it quite as heavily bittered, but drinking this beer less than two weeks after bottling (bottling date: 09/22/2011) definitely fulfills my hop quota.

If the 2010 bottling was a B+, this is an A-, maybe even an A. Ridiculously drinkable as well. Drink it fresh or don’t drink it at all.